Today I drew three things at the National Gallery of Australia.
The cancellation proof of David Hockney’s Portrait of Rolf Nelson, 1968, lithograph with hand colouring. The cancellation proof has red eyes and bow lips with a peace sign on the sitters shirt.
You can see the original version of the print here.
People sitting in the Members lounge. 
A Gandaran Bodisattva, carved from grey schist. 
(Warning this is a long post with lots of photos)
Flying in to Kuching (Malaysia) the sinuous Sarawak River looked the perfect picture of a tropical waterway. I was here with my partner and six other sketchers from Canberra to meet up with another 290 odd sketchers from all across Asia for the second Asia-link Sketchwalk.
Rockin’ the Asia-link Sketchwalk Kuching 2017 mascots with some friends
Organised by Peggy and the crew from Urban Sketchers Kuching, (USk Kuching) we were treated to three days of sketching, sweating, workshops, eating, making new friends and renewing old friendships. By way of explanation, a sketchwalk is where everyone goes out and sketches together in a specific location.
Our home base was The Granary, a large restaurant and bar complex abutting the older Chinese section of the city and a stone’s throw from the Sarawak River.
The Granary, where all meals are accompanied by a sketchbook!
As most of the Aussies made it to the city a day before the official start we had some time to settle in and get our bearings. We started off with a boat trip on the Sarawak River.
Sketching our way down the Sarawak River
Luckily one of our friends speaks Malay so we able to get the boatman to let us drift downriver, so we could sketch as we went.
Trawlers on the Sarawak River, watercolour
He also took us to one of the shops specialising in those amazing Malay sponge cakes, Kek Lapis = layer cake.
Kek lapis, the brighter the better!
It was also the final day of the Autumn Moon Festival so we enjoyed the moon cakes and the evening parade with obligatory dragon and lion dancers.
Sketching at the Tua Peh Kong Temple. (photograph courtesy of Edric Hsu)
How to maintain your dragon
The organisers of the Sketchwalk arranged for a stamp, (beloved of all USk get-togethers), for every place where we sketched.
When you stopped to sketch you would soon be joined by other sketchers. Along the streets we would spread out keeping the locals amused and the official photographer very busy as he tried to capture all the sketching action.
Of course there were workshops. I did a workshop with Paul Wang (from USk Singapore), exploring the use of a credit card (or similar) as a painting tool.
Paul Wang giving us a demonstration at the start of his workshop
My sketch from the Paul Wang workshop
My second workshop was with Sanjeev Joshi (from USk Pune, India), exploring the use of collage in sketching. What I really liked about the schedule was that we had a chance to apply what we learned in the workshops in the daily sketchwalks.
My collage from the Sanjeev Joshi workshop, watercolour and brochure
The weather was kind for most of our stay, well apart from being hot and humid every day. Sadly we got rained out on the last day of the event. The planned group photograph outside the Sarawak Museum , was cancelled when the grass literally went underwater with the torrential rain.
Of course what I enjoyed most was meeting all those people
Sketchers on the final night in Kuching (photo courtesy of Jee Foong)
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The entry gate to Carpenter Street with its many old Chinese shop houses
Our accomodation, The Marion Boutique Lodging House, a former boarding school
The colourful shopfronts in India Street
I have heard some sad stories of favourite pens and brushes rolling down foreign drains and off jetties and into the water. So I understand why a lot of people seriously think about what brushes they will take when they are travelling. Discussions generally end by deciding to cut off the end of regular brushes so they can fit into their bags or investing in special travel brushes. But is there a third option?
If you live near a certain Swedish store, then this might be an option. 
In the children’s section you can find a set of six small brushes which might suit your needs. They are synthetic brushes, with lightweight wooden handles. All 6 together weigh 41 grams so they would be good for those travelling light. I got these for just under $6, so you certainly won’t break the bank buying a set.
Here are some test sheets made using the three round brushes. To give you and idea of brush size, the middle size brush is similar in size to a round No. 10 brush. However I don’t think these pages tell you much except that all the brushes maintain a fine point and hold a reasonable amount of paint.
To give them a ‘proper’ test I decided that I should use them to sketch a building on my regular paper. I pulled out an old photo from a trip to Germany to sketch.
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For this sketch I used the middle and small round brushes and the medium size square brush. I wasn’t overwhelmed with the results, but I was painting quite fast so that probably effected the outcome. It shouldn’t be a surprise when I say that these brushes don’t really compare to good quality watercolour brushes.
What I did find was that the brushes made paint harder to control. I think this was due mainly to the shape of the brush. You could do a fine line, but the fast angle change to the wide section of the brush often resulted in too much paint coming onto the page.
The most useful brush was the square brush, which easily gave an even coverage for painting the sky. I also discovered that this brush could give a lovely fine feathered edge if it was used fairly dry. Here is a detail showing that effect.
In summary these brushes are good for:
BEST OPTION: consider packing the medium or large square brushes if you need a brush for adding your skies.
DON’T BOTHER: if you plan to focus on painting serious watercolours. My advice would be lash out and buy a travel version of your favourite brush.
Four sketches from 2 regular sketching spots. Two from the cafe at the markets and two from our regular cafe. In date order.
Today we had a large group of sketchers meet at the National Arboretum, which has some of the best views over the city of Canberra. The shape of the central building on the site is leaf-shaped from above, and the curve of the roofline echoes the nearby hills.
I worked on capturing the curve of the most prominent part of the building along with the view across to the telecommunications tower on the nearby Black Mountain.
I prepared my page with splashes of paint before sketching.
leonieandrews 
